Every company worth the weight of their chains and thangs is putting out a collective album in 2012. That emphasis feels strange to me. It’s like nowadays rappers need to prove that they can ‘play well with others’ so they can keep their record deals and merit their spots in the limelight. Being a useful collaborator well and being seen in videos giving good dap are becoming more necessary skills than crafting records, or even rapping at times (take your pick from the endless list of careers where this is true: Big Sean, 2Chainz, Birdman, Drizzly Drake…).

The group rap album is very much a marketing strategy, designed and being copied endlessly to draw in more sales and create more hype for albums. Combining fan bases, rap groups and labels can garner more sales for their collective album and generate more interest for the individual rapper’s albums. In lean times, getting those sales is more of a necessity. It’s getting to a point however where we are starting to lose the identities of individual rappers. I feel rappers are putting less effort into crafting deep, resonant personas and stories, and are now on merely trying to stand out from the crowds of spitters mobbing records. Group songs are often only interesting insofar as each voice and flow is different. In your group you’ve got the one that raps fast, the one that raps slow, the one with the deep voice, and the one with the low voice. Mob tracks never have the same conceptual depth individual rapper’s songs or albums have.

It used to be that a rapper’s team was there to show that he is well connected; that he is surrounded by his loyal brothers, that he is unfuckwithable. Now it’s all about business—about sharing responsibilities and making a splash on the scene. Ten people jumping into a pool together will always make a bigger splash than one. Collaboration is an important part of hip-hop, but it can’t the primary engine driving the game. Collective albums should second in importance to the creation of solid individual rappers. Wu-Tang is an exception, because they were the first and the rap collective was a new concept. But even Wu-Tang: They made 36 Chambers with the intent of launching individual careers for them all. They made a dope group album (36), then made four dope individual albums that first round, which deepened the intrigue —Iron Man, Liquid Swords, Only Built For Cuban Linx, 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version. This what made “Triumph”—the first single off their second group album—such a brilliant moment. No chorus, 6 minutes, and that track still made the radio. Their union meant so much more now that they had individual personalities and styles.

Too many group rap albums are flooding the market. Too many MCs, not enough space in my brain to care about each of them. These albums are all swagger and no depth. I wish rappers would work to craft their albums with personality, purpose, and story. Writing like this will make rappers coming together for group albums much more meaningful events. It will make listening to group albums feel less like sampling a variety pack or a trail mix, wondering only: which guy is the angry rapper or who was smoking the most during the session and’s got the lazy stoner flow.